Dragonsphere

Saturday, February 10, 2018

Platforms:

PC

Publisher:

MicroProse Software

Developer:

MPS Labs

Genres:

Adventure / SCUMM

Release Date:

1994

Game Modes:

Singleplayer

First released way back in 1994, Dragonsphere is a good fantasy adventure that uses the SCUMM interface, itself an evolution on the old text parser seen in early adventure games. The graphics are very good for its time, though of course, dated by today’s standards. Shortly after this game was released Microprose announced that it was to cease producing adventure games which, as well as being a slight to all adventure fans, is a shame as Dragonsphere showed they were quite capable of making a quality adventure.

Dragonsphere is a third-person perspective adventure where you control the actions of Callash as he sets out to put things right within his kingdom. In the course of your journey you will meet the rather annoying faeries, the despised shapeshifters and the mysterious Soptus Ecliptus whose language you will need to learn before you are able to communicate. Many twists and discoveries await as you unravel the plot.

In the best adventuring tradition you must explore your surroundings carefully, talk to other characters and acquire many items to help you overcome the many and varied obstacles to your progress. The puzzles are fun and at times quite complex in that you may need to travel back and forth to various locations and solve other problems before you can get what you need. Your quest is a perilous one so you can die a lot, but the game automatically restores you to the point where you made your mistake so that you can immediately resume your progress.

The interface is similar to that used in earlier Microprose adventures, like Rex Nebular, and allows you to build a command from a verb list that appears at the bottom of the screen along with your inventory. Some inventory items also have a verb list allowing you to try out different actions with a particular object, and you can also combine certain items to create a new one. This, too, adds to the complexity of the puzzles and gives you much more control over your character’s actions.